Plastic bags only add to California's fiscal woes

Californians have clearly stated in polls they want government to cut waste. Yet, given that opportunity last year, in one of the worst economic times, the state missed its chance.

California can slash both wasteful spending and plastic waste, save millions of dollars in annual clean-up costs and protect its valuable tourist industry by reducing its reliance on single-use plastic bags. It's a bold step — too bold for some people who fear making a small change in their daily routine. But, a growing number of communities are embracing the challenge.

Last year, at least six municipalities, including Monterey and Palo Alto, passed or enacted ordinances to ban or limit the use of certain types of plastic. Other cities such as Malibu and Santa Monica had already banned Styrofoam take-out containers and targeted plastic bags for elimination.

Despite warnings that regulations on plastic would lead to economic downfall, these municipalities are doing just fine. Now it's time for the state to get on board!

California has a lot to protect. Blessings of natural beauty from the ocean to the mountains to the desert require stewardship by those fortunate to live here. Our coastline is a pillar for tourism and ecology, which contribute $43 billion a year to our economy and provide 408,000 jobs.

We put it all at risk when we request a plastic bag at checkout. Between 60 percent and 80 percent of all trash found in the ocean is plastic. It has injured or killed at least 267 species worldwide, primarily through ingestion, entanglement and suffocation.

The infamous "Pacific Garbage Patch," a toxic soup of plastic in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, is the best known example of plastic pollution, where plastic confetti gathers, sucking up toxic chemicals and spreading them to the fish we eat. We use plastic bags and containers for 5 minutes, at most 5 hours, yet they can float in our oceans for 500 years. In California, less than 5 percent of all plastic is ever recycled.

While plastic pollution is a global problem and the result of our throwaway culture, California is no small offender. As a state, we use 165,000 tons of polystyrene each year for food packaging, and 19 billion plastic bags. Of all the plastic found in the ocean and on beaches, 80 percent come from land-based sources.

Last year, multiple bills were proposed to reduce the flow of plastic to the oceans. These included Assembly Bill 68, which I introduced to give consumers a choice to bring a reuseable bag for groceries and for supermarkets or to pay a quarter for each plastic bag they request.

Other measures would have banned single-use, polystyrene take-out containers, and required the caps on plastic bottles be attached so they are less likely to wind up in the ocean. While those two bills were put on hold, the plastic bag bill was defeated. It was seen as too expensive during a bad budget year, even though the poor would have been exempt from the bag fee and grocers have started giving away reuseable bags.

Unfortunately, the cost of keeping the status quo may be higher. Supermarkets can spend $1,500 to $6,000 a month just to provide single-use bags for their customers at checkout. The cost to taxpayers to recycle, collect and dispose of bags is an estimated 17 cents per bag. State agencies in California spend $25 million a year to clean up plastic single-use bags that end up in our waste stream. And this does not include the costs associated with Styrofoam containers, bottle caps, plastic film and other plastic trash that finds its way to the ocean.

We have long passed the point of simply cutting our six-pack rings to save marine life. Photos abound of turtles eating plastic bags — cute until you learn they died — and autopsied birds stuffed like piñatas with bottle caps.

California has shown the nation how to be a leader for the environment, but on the issue of plastic bags other states are pulling ahead and individual communities within California have stopped waiting for the state to take action.

I have introduced a new bill this year, AB1998, which would ban plastic bags and impose a fee on paper bags to wean Californians off their nasty bag habit. We've cut other nasty habits, we can cut this habit, too.